Next-level handgun skills are within reach

Many people ask me what they should practice when they go to the range. The answer to this seemingly simple question is “It depends.” People have different skill levels, performance goals and amounts of time they are willing to dedicate to practice. Many people who ask want a magic pill that would make them a better shooter, kind of like that elusive magic pill to make everyone thin and fit. And just like losing weight, we can improve our firearm skills with consistent work and dedication. You can’t just want to improve. You need to put the work in to get better. The good news is there are some simple things everyone can do to improve their overall shooting performance. 

Have a plan

Whether you’re a competitive shooter, a police officer or a firearms instructor, when you head out to work on your skills, you should have a plan. This plan should include your overall training goals, your short-term goals and your goals for each practice session. It’s best to write these down so you can track progress over time and stay on track. For example, let’s say you’re an average shooter in your department, but your goal is to become one of your department’s best shooters. What does that mean to you? How will you quantify that?

Next, determine what you need to do to reach that goal. For example, if the top 5% of shooters in your department regularly shoot a 95% on your handgun qualification, then you know your goal is to shoot 95% or better. At this point, you can look at your department handgun qualification as a guide for skills training. Applying marksmanship at different distances, reloads, shooting under time duress, positional shooting and one-handed shooting may be skills to work on. Once you determine your strengths and weaknesses, it’s time to work on turning those weaknesses into strengths. Keep in mind there’s a lot more to being a good shooter than shooting a high qualification score. Qualification courses are nothing more than a test of minimum standards. This is simply an example of where to begin your journey toward improvement.

If you’re serious about improving, you need to invest in a shot timer. You can buy a decent shot timer starting around $100. The shot timer I use allows me to set multiple par times, which is convenient for practicing more complex drills. Unless you practice under time duress, you aren’t preparing yourself to perform under time constraints. There is a shot timer in a gunfight, and it’s being run by the threat, so we need to practice under time duress. Other than your duty gear and a shot timer, you don’t need to buy any special equipment or targets. If you choose, you could buy 1/3-size targets at many target supply companies or print some off the internet.

Dry fire

In my career as an instructor, I’ve told hundreds of people that dry-fire practice is the single best way to advance their skill level. Let me repeat. Dry-fire practice is the best way to improve your performance and take your shooting to the next level. Even five minutes of quality dry-fire practice time three to four times per week will greatly improve skills. Dry-fire practice is about quality, not quantity. It’s better to do 10 minutes three times per week instead of one 30-minute session once per week. Dry-fire practice requires mental discipline that is difficult to maintain over prolonged periods. Once that discipline is lost, it is easy to get sloppy and practice bad habits.

Dry fire may not be as fun and exciting as live-fire training, but it gives you a chance to see what you do at the gun without recoil masking the problem. For example, if you consistently shoot low left during live fire, you probably don’t see the problem occurring in your sight picture because the movement is small and quickly masked by recoil. In dry-fire practice, you can see the movement of your sights during the break of the trigger. This is especially obvious if you use a pistol-mounted optic. The movement of the dot during the trigger press is a giveaway to the problem. (Hint: It’s probably a combination of an improper grip and poor trigger press.) When you see this, improve your hand placement and grip pressure, along with pressing the trigger straight to the rear without adding lateral pressure or convulsively tightening the rest of your hand. 

Dry-fire practice drills

I know what you’re thinking: “That’s all well and good, but if I want to improve, what should I do?” If you’re looking for some specific guidance on what to practice, you need to get with a good handgun instructor to identify weak areas and help design a program for you. Tailoring a program is the best way to work on the skills vital to improving your individual performance.

When it comes to my own training program, here are some standard drills I use. I don’t do all these drills every time, but I mix and match based on the time I have to practice and where my skills are improving or lagging behind. For dry-fire practice, I find a room where I can get about 5 yards away from a wall. I use several 2 x 2-inch sticky notes hung on the wall as my targets. The listed par times are what I’m currently working on from a Level III duty holster. Adjust your own par times according to your skill level.

Safety rules for dry-fire practice:

• Do not dry-fire at an interior wall that a bullet could pass through. An interior wall with an outer brick wall on the opposite side or a stone fireplace works well.
• Concealable body armor works well as a backstop for dry-fire practice.
• Never, under any circumstances whatsoever, dry-fire at anything you could possibly destroy. This includes people, pets, the TV set or anything else a bullet could destroy.
• If there is nothing in your house at which you can safely dry-fire, do not dry-fire at home. Do not dry-fire at something unsafe because you “know the gun is unloaded.”
• Do not dry-fire if you are tired, distracted or your mind is on anything other than your practice time.
• Unload your firearm and keep all live ammunition out of your training room.
• Check to make sure your firearm is unloaded before practice. Check again.

Draw and one trigger press

1. 1. One target
   2. 0.9-second par time from duty holster or concealment

Draw and two trigger presses

1. 1. One target
   2. 1.1-second par time from duty holster or concealment

Move, draw and two trigger presses

1. 1. One target
   2. 1.1-second par time from duty holster or concealment

Draw and target transitions

1. 1. Four targets
   2. Draw and two trigger presses on target #1 — 1.1-second par time
   3. Transition to target #2, two trigger presses — 0.4-second par time
   4. Transition to target #3, two trigger presses — 0.4-second par time
   5. Transition to target #4, two trigger presses — 0.4-second par time
   6. Transition back to target #3, two trigger presses — 0.4-second par time
   7. Transition back to target #2, two trigger presses — 0.4-second par time
   8. Transition to target #1, two trigger presses — 0.4-second par time
   9. Total time: 3.5 seconds

Reloads

1. Set up empty reload
   1. Sighted in, on timer, reload, two trigger presses on target #1
   2. 1.7-second par time
2. Set up empty reload
   1. Sighted in, on timer, reload, two trigger presses on target #1
   2. Reload, two trigger presses on target #2
   3. 3.5-second par time
3. Traditional tactical reload — no par time
4. Reload with retention — no par time

Movement drills

1. Moving forward (25 yards to 7 yards)
2. Moving to the right/left (start at 10–15 yards)
3. Box Drill
   1. Dynamic movement forward around barrel or cone — three trigger presses
   2. Dynamic movement right around barrel or cone — three trigger presses
   3. Dynamic movement back around barrel or cone — three trigger presses
   4. Dynamic movement left around barrel or cone — three trigger presses
   5. Repeat in opposite direction

Live fire

Once you’ve put in the work during dry-fire practice, it’s time to hit the range to see if there’s something else to focus on. There’s a pretty good chance that unless you’re one of the top shooters in your state, you could use some work on seeing what you need to see without wasting time verifying your sights over and over and work on recoil control.

Recoil control is one of the few things you can’t practice during dry-fire training. Once you have improved your hand placement and grip pressure during dry-fire training, it’s time to put it to the test. During recoil, handguns will move toward the path of least resistance. Like electricity, recoil will flow through gaps in your grip, exposing holes in your shooting platform. If you pay attention to your sights or dot during recoil, they should move straight up slightly and settle back to the same point where the shot was fired. You don’t need a target to see this, but you will need to shoot five to six shots, starting slowly and speeding up, to see this happen. Anyone can be good for one or two shots, but once recoil starts affecting your hands and body, problems that need to be corrected will be revealed.

Live fire can test your brain’s ability to keep up with your trigger finger. It’s important to train your brain to see things quicker. The world’s best shooters don’t press the trigger much faster than us mere mortals, but they visually recognize their sights and targets much faster. To improve your brain’s ability to process information faster, the ability to move, shoot and navigate simultaneously is an important skill to practice.

Live-fire practice drills

The key to live-fire practice is to use it as a proving ground for your dry-fire training. This is the time to figure out what else you should be practicing. Live-fire practice also gives you a chance to measure progress. Keeping a training log will provide a measurable way to track performance.

A mistake a lot of people make when it comes to live-fire training is not keeping track of their performance by using a shot timer and repeating drills several times. Anyone can be lucky once or twice, but consistent improvement for three or more runs shows a pattern. When you’re training, do each of these multiple times to see what happens when you make a change. For example, on the Box Drill, begin your movement at a comfortable pace from start to finish. Next, move fast and explosively when not shooting and slow down to make your hits. Changing foot speed and shooting speed during drills can challenge the best of shooters. If you’re using steel targets, make sure you are no closer than 10 yards.

Six-round rapid-fire test — at a quick pace

1. 5 yards (two repetitions)
2. 10 yards (two repetitions)
3. 15 yards (two repetitions)
4. Goal: Keep all shots centered on target, looking for a centered group without vertical or horizontal spread
5. Vertical or horizontal spread indicates a shooting platform or trigger control issue

BFM Drill (adapted from Ken Hackathorn)

1. Set three paper targets 1 yard apart
2. Load a magazine of eight rounds with a full second magazine
3. On the timer, draw and engage center target six rounds to the body (Bill Drill)
4. Transition to the left target and fire two rounds to the head, perform an empty reload and fire four rounds to the body (F.A.S.T. Drill)
5. Transition to the right target and fire two rounds to the body and one round to the head
6. Scored total time and penalties

• Any rounds outside center area = +1 second
• Any rounds off target = DQ
• A = < 11 seconds
• B = 11–14 seconds
• C = 14–17 seconds
• D = 17–20 seconds

Box Drill

1. On timer, dynamic movement forward around barrel or cone — three hits
2. Dynamic movement right around barrel or cone — three hits
3. Dynamic movement back around barrel or cone — three hits
4. Dynamic movement left around barrel or cone — three hits
5. Repeat in opposite direction
6. Watch your muzzle direction if on a public range or a range with a 180-degree rule

Scrambler Drill (adapted from Patrick McNamara)

1. Set two vision barriers 10 yards apart
2. Starting in the middle, on timer, move dynamically to one side and fire one round
3. Move dynamically to the other side and fire one round
4. Repeat for a total of 10 hits (works best on steel)
5. Option: Download magazines to force reloads

Crazy 8 (adapted from Robert Vogel)

1. Set two cones or barrels 1 yard apart
2. On timer, move around the barrels in a figure-eight
3. Two hits while moving forward
4. Drill ends at 12 hits
5. Watch your muzzle direction if on a public range or a range with a 180-degree rule

High-performance shooting

The path to being a good shooter requires effort. There’s no secret sauce to shooting well. If you want to be better, it takes time, training and deliberate practice. Goals should be possible, but not easily attainable. If you put the time in, you can reach your goals.

Todd Fletcher

Todd Fletcher is a retired sergeant from central Oregon with over 25 years of law enforcement experience. He presents firearms training, instructor certification and instructor development classes nationwide. He owns Combative Firearms Training, LLC, providing firearms training, handgun and patrol rifle instructor certification, and instructor development classes to law enforcement, military and private security. He can be contacted at Todd@CombativeFirearms.com.

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